Sunday, October 3, 2010

Live Blogging Sprint Cup Series From Kansas (ESPN/ESPN2 - 12PM ET)

Once again this week, the TV coverage will begin on ESPN2 with the pre-race show and shift to ESPN for the race itself. This is a function of the races being moved from ABC to ESPN and the network already having an NFL show in the 11AM - 1PM timeslot.

Allen Bestwick is hosting the telecast today from the Infield Pit Studio. Brad Daugherty and Rusty Wallace are alongside. Tim Brewer is in the Tech Garage. The focus should again be on the Chase with perhaps a news item or two breaking into the line-up.

Marty Reid is back in the broadcast booth with Dale Jarrett and Andy Petree. Reporting from pit road are Dr. Jerry Punch, Jamie Little, Dave Burns and Vince Welch.

ESPN is once again struggling with bad reviews and low ratings. Fans have chimed in with all kinds of suggestions about the reasons why NASCAR is having a tough time in the playoffs. Hopefully, good action on the track may help the cause today.

There are no weather issues and there should be a good crowd today. Kansas has a history of turning out a lot of race fans for NASCAR events. This speedway is a pet project of the ISC and having a successful event here is very important to the France family.

TV has fun at Kansas because there are many great views of the racing action. The aerial view shows the facility while the speed shots work to relay how fast the track actually is for these cars. ESPN struggled on Saturday with the NNS event, using tight shots that rarely showed more than three cars and missed most of the action.

ESPN has a formula for these events that fans and TV viewers know all too well. It puts a continual emphasis on the Chasers and lets the actual events of the race slowly slip away. It's a tough challenge to cover both inside one race.

This week is going to be pivotal in the Chase. Not for the racers, but for the TV network. ESPN needs to deliver an interesting and focused presentation that keeps the fans watching TV and lets the emphasis be on what is happening on the track, not what the network chooses to show.

Over the last several weeks, ESPN has gone to the first in-race commercial before lap ten. They have run the final commercial inside of twenty laps to go and once within ten. No one understands what is happening with this company that was once a critical partner with NASCAR in the growth of the sport.

This post will serve to host your comments on the ESPN presentation of the Sprint Cup Series race from Kansas Speedway. To add your TV-related comment, just click on the comments button below. This is a family-friendly website, please keep that in mind when posting. Thanks for taking the time to stop by.

Regardless of the actual ratings numbers I predict that NASCAR will point to the weekly top 25 cable rankings which show the GREAT SUCCESS of the Chase. Week one the cup race was ranked 25. Week 2 it was 14 -- nevermind that 14th place ranking followed multiple broadcasts of Spongebob. Just sayin'

I have no issues with the sound on my ESPN2 HD channel but the SD channel is nothing but static. Very odd. I usually have issues w/ the HD channel rather than the SD. My cable company is Cable One (local).

@Pammmmmmmm--yup just saw that tweet an absolute shame :(. Hate to see Bobby reduced to S&P he's a CHAMPION and I know full well he can still drive :(. Good news he'll be on the Race Chef Charlotte weekend (unless something changes).

Just got home from running errands in time for the green flag. Missed the rerun segments I presume from in the pre-race show. The aerial view so far has been nice. Let's hope the 3 in the booth have an easier day than yesterday's race. Hope my guys have good races.

Is the leaderboard on NASCAR.com working for anyone? It isn't working for me in either Firefox or IE. The scanners don't work in Firefox either. Has NASCAR.com abandoned support for Firefox? I hate when I'm forced to use IE. I'm starting to think they need to hire me to keep things working. LOL

First commercial break at lap 9 and don't come back until lap 17. How are people suppose to sustain interest in this race?

Audio guy needs to be fired. Background cars are making it hard to hear the booth monkeys and pit reporters. That would be a good thing, except with no or little lifting the racing sounds are very monotonous and put me to sleep.

Now another commercial break. Blogger having technical difficulties, too! Had to re-type post.

Ya know, it is awful hard to keep my eyes on the race when i am distracted to the score alerts on the bottom of the screen. then i go to that game and may continue to watch that instead. and nascar wonders why ratings are down. just saying....

Camera gets to the action late so it doesn't look like anything interesting and as soon as it appears to be setting up for actual racing or passing they leave for more missed action or better yet an incar camera angle and I can't tell WTF is going on. This is a mess

ESPN is looking in the wrong direction in assessing the ratings decline. It's not from thr 1 pm start times. They need to look in a mirror at their production. Also - what NASCAR gives them doesn't help either.

Maybe ESPN would like the races on Friday nights? Oh, no, that's high school football night. Maybe they should start them at 9 am on Sunday? How about Monday at noon? ESPN is blowing wind, trying to come up with excuses for crappy racing and even crappier coverage.

The only real solution is for Nascar to end their season the first week in September.

Scary thing about JD's troll is that the couple of times I have seen a name attached to one of its posts is that I have a kid that is a tween who has that name. Lives with his mother, though, not me. Thank goodness

Anon 2:12-- I don't think they will fill two races. I think htey will have two races a little over half full. With one race in an area with only one race, it is special. With two races, the fans will decide which one race they will attend,

Being in "the business", I try not to criticize colleagues, but also being a fan of the 17, whom ESPN admitted needs a good finish, I can't believe they didn't show a single shot of him leading... until they went to commercial.They didn't actually start covering the 17 until the 14 caught him... and he fit into their preset storyline for the race. BTW, I didn't want to believe the "storyline coverage" theory either, but...

I truly hope ESPN looks inward as they study the drop in ratings.

Allan

PS - Just a thought: If they did show the 17 going to every commercial, he would be the most covered car on the broadcast!

BTW, I am following the race via MRN and trackpass and only switching over to ESPN once in a while -- I don't have a nielson box so they aren't counting my nose, but there's only so much a person can stand and I hit my limit with the bad coverage a while back.

Once the Eagles-Redskins game comes on, I'll be watching that on TV. Football coverage is a lot better than NASCAR broadcasts -- no matter who is covering it.

We rightfully complain about the number and timing of commercials. But imagine watching the race without interruption as it is currently presented. We would all be switching channels out of pure boredom and frustration.

Whomever it was that mentioned the Equestrian event on NBC was spot on. I looked. Then came back to the race then looked again at a commercial, then again and now I seem to be watching it a lot. And I don't even like horses that much (since they have never particularly liked me).

Anon 2:41 -- but in NASCAR when you own the playing field and are also in control of the sanctioning body, you know he's not going to walk away from this awesome gig, not even if the whole thing collapses on itself

Agree on the NFL. They have parity and a reason to watch each week. Any team can defeat another on a given weekend. In NASCAR it seems like the same suspects each weekend. The product put out by NASCAR had declined tremendously.

Cats love me. I decorate with them. Cats, of course, are smarter than horses they would never stoop to jumping over something I might wish them to. Come to think of it cats are smarter than NASCAR leadership -- or am I insulting cats by even using the comparison? lmao

I've been switching back and forth between racing and football. ESPN seems to miss every incident due to commercials or tight shots. Rather than focusing on the race, they are incredibly focused on radio chatter today. There is no direction through the action, the camera just finds a random battle or a Chaser. It is so fustrating to be a fan.

So, Brooks is a France "cronie". Bill Sr. and Bill Jr. surrounded themselves with hard working folks with good common street smarts. Brian isn't even in the garage area on weekly basis. Third generation theory holds true - he has run it into the ground.

My favorite part of the whole TV/ratings thing is that neither Nascar (read BZF) or ESPN can seem to make the connection from the COT and Chase to the ratings going down. Now really...how hard is that?

This is when it becomes difficult to determine whether the problem is the car or tv. Cars battle everywhere within the first 5 laps of a restart. There is so much action, ESPN uses spilt screen. 5 laps after a restart, ESPN resorts to the pit reporters, tight shots, in-car & bumper cams. The field looks spread out and nobody is passing.

Is it that difficult to pass a few laps after a restart, or does ESPN miss it?